Prolonged sitting is only a problem when you remain still in one position without moving your spine along with the rest of your body. Moving your spine has a knock-on effect to all your skeletal joints and thus keeps your whole body in movement.
A far more serious way of causing injury to your spine is by getting up from an ergonomic chair, without without any locking brakes attached to the the casters that stops them from moving. If you do not have them, you are more than likely to fall out of the chair and cause an injury, unless you lean the chair against a wall and then try to get out of the chair.
Some people are able to rise easily from an ergonomic chair without using the armrests; which means their legs are strong enough to raise their body weight up to a standing position. But if you are not fit or over your normal sized body weight; you will find this a struggle to get up, without the physical assistance of an armrest or a grab rail.
If the chair moves, which an ergonomic chair will do; then it is important to have locking brakes on the casters. I would recommend that you have one lever that will brake every caster; so that there are no risks for getting out of the chair.
The more weight that is on your body, the more difficult it is to move your body around and the more dangerous that functional mobility will become; such as rising from a chair, a toilet or the bath and also climbing stairs.
As a trained Occupational Therapist this is the "bread and butter of my professional skills" for making sure that people are safe to handle functional mobility, which are all your functional transfers.
Nearly all people who cannot rise easily from a chair have a tendency to reach out and grab for anything that will pull themselves up out of the chair
This is the wrong way to get out of a chair. What if the fixture you grabbed was movable? It is unlikely to be of any help and you may end falling on the floor. It is always better to have an armrest to use, unless like a toilet, it may not be possible and then you need a grab rail fitted.
Another danger of not moving your body when prolonged sitting is that your body becomes stiff and less inclined to be move spontaneously when you need to move such as standing up.
The first thing you need to check before purchasing an ergonomic chair is how safe is the chair for you to rise from?
So forget all the sales features promoted by sales professionals recommending how wonderful their ergonomic chairs are; check on and how easily you can get in and out of them and tells you how comfortable and safe you will feel.
Remember, sales people do not know your problems and cannot teach you the safest way to sit and get out of an ergonomic chair.
Ergonomic chairs have rolling casters and therefore move around easily. Since I am trained as an Occupational Therapist, my roll will be to take care of your functional mobility as well as comfort in the right ergonomic chair for your needs: as well as to help you with your active mobility along with your discomforts.
The author Gail McGonigal is a qualified Occupational Therapist, no longer able to practice in her profession due to cognitive brain damage damage from viral encephalitis. Instead she is creating a new niche market in comfortable and safe solutions for people with aches and pains in their skeletal joints. She is starting with ergonomic chairs: http://www.activelivingsolutions.net and specializes with people unable to purchase a chair from any local store. Gail's chairs can be made according to what is available on the website or for people either very big: http://www.activelivingsolutions.net/big-and-tall-chairs.html and also the very small (any chair can be made smaller. Gail has special knowledge of how to deal with back pain and other skeletal discomforts. She is writing out a blog site where she will be discussing specific chairs for your benefit. Please contact Gail through her website and she will give you her toll free number if you wish to discuss any of the chairs.
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